Our financial struggle this year has turned into some pretty interesting conversations between me and the kids. I really enjoy explaining to them that God will provide, that he is always listening, and that everything is going to be OK. What I enjoy more is when the proof is in the pudding.
As I am in the garden pulling weeds before breakfast, waiting for the bread to finish baking, I have all the kids working. Ellie is following me around yelling "boobie" and pulling on my shirt, Tan-man is whining that he shouldn't have to pull weeds because he is so cute, and Abby is complaining that she is pulling weeds but cannot dig a hole to China. The three oldest are diligently pulling weeds, but only because they have figured out that if they just do it, it will be done and they can go play.
Perfect time to talk. As we talked we reflected on the last few weeks and about the garden we wished we could have put together this year.
When We planted all of our seeds earlier this year we had SO MANY plans. Little did we know, Duke and Daisy had plans too.
The lambs ate everything. Every sprout, every plant, everything of value.
All we had left were a few kinds of unplanted seeds. The kids were almost as bummed out as Ash and I. All of the money and time invested in those sprouts, gone. All of the plans, the excitement, man, we couldn't catch a break.
After the disappointment of losing the garden we tried to make up for it by planting some old seeds. Pumpkin, watermelon, corn, cantaloupe and zucchini. The zucchini came up almost immediately. A neighbor friend emailed me that week to tell me about a plant sell that supports the garden program at a local college and the plants were "super cheap." We went over there as a family and purchased several tomato plants, peppers and a few trees. We spent $17! We planted them in the garden and made it almost beautiful again.
Would you believe, the lambs knocked the fence down and did it again?! I know, we should have known better, we didn't. Thankfully, they only ate the peppers and the corn. Apparently lambs don't like tomatoes and zucchini. We wanted to give up. We halfheartedly pulled weeds for a few days, but only because we duper love the only things growing, zucchini and tomatoes. The other seeds hadn't sprouted yet, so we wanted them to have a fighting chance.
Fueling my give up fire, I over did it, and hurt my back. I was unable to get out and the kids aren't motivated to pull weeds without me, so it had been a few days since any now had been out there. The weeds in the garden exploded! There were millions of weeds everywhere!
I have been trying to go out there and pull weeds as much as time would allow. After a few days of trying to catch up, something interesting happened. We noticed some sprouts that could only be pumpkins!There were little pumpkin sprouts everywhere! When we rototilled the garden before we planted we left the tiny old pumpkin that never grew last year. Last years garden was a total fail. Apparently, the seeds from that unenthusiastic pumpkin plant spread through out the garden and now there are sprouts everywhere!
We went through and tried to pull weeds around each of the sprouts, thinking maybe if we got nothing else from this garden, at least we might get some pumpkins! Pulling weeds for a while we noticed something else. The weeds we were pulling were mostly the common weeds that we have to pull all around the property. There was one weed that we didn't recognize, in an attempt to identify them, we started pulling them up and examining them. Teachable moment about our 5 senses we decided to smell them and realized we recognize that smell! These are TOMATOES! There are tiny little tomato plants everywhere!
Now instead of begrudgingly pulling weeds, we are rejoicing in the fact that we are not just going to have a couple of tomatoes and a couple of zucchinis; we're also going to have a million tomatoes and pumpkins too! We made the decision to pull weeds around the tomato plants and let them all live where they are. If we need to construct supports for them later we will.
We also noticed that the corn and peppers that the lambs ate are growing back! The seeds we planted are starting to sprout and we fixed the fence. So as the kids and I pull weeds I get the joyful opportunity to explain to them that each and every single weed that you pull is giving God a big high-five and saying thank You. Thank You for all that we've been given, thank You for our blessings...
This garden may have turned out to be a success after all...
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